Explosion engine



2, 1941. A. TEBALDI I v 2,264,648

. EXPLOSION ENGINE Filed Aug. 16, 1938 6 Sheets-Sheet l ATEBAbDI W MVSIINVENTOR Dec. 2, 1941.

A. T EQALDI I EXPLOSION ENGI'NE Filed Aug. 16, 1938 e Sheets-Sheet 2 ATEBALDI W ATTYS.

' Dec. 2, 1941.

- A. TEBALDI I EXPLOSION ENGINE Filed Aug. 16, 1958 6 Sheets-Sheet 4-A;,TEBA'LJUI Dec. 2,- 1941. A. TEBALDI 2,

EXPLOSZION ENGINE v Filed Aug. 16, 1938 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 mvsnfba A.TEBALD} 5y z a Arr-vs.

Patented Dec. 2, 1941 UNITED STATE s PATENT OFFICE EXPLOSION ENGINE Al.lebaldi, Milan-Italy Application August 3 Claims.

This invention relates to multi-cyllnder four stroke explosion enginesparticularly of high power class, and it comprises an engine in which anexplosion chamber cooperates with two or more cylinders arranged at anangle to each other, the pistons operative in said cylinders ac-16,1938, Serial No. 225,243

August 30, 1937 tuating crank shafts mounted adjacent the ends I centralportion of the engine while the respective crank shafts are located atthe periphery of the engine and impart their rotation to a main drivingshaft or to a number of main driving shafts.

The present invention thus provides an engine which has a large numberof cylinders as useful to reduce the size and weight of thereciprocating masses, the load operative on the bearings and the extentof the piston strokes, while at the same time it includes a restrictednumber of explosion chambers with the advantage of an improved thermicefllciency and of a more simple organization of the distributing gears.

Some embodiments of this invention are illustrated on the annexeddrawings and- Fig. l is a transverse section'of an engine of thisinvention with four radialcylinders said section being made on a planeextending through the cylinder axes;

Fig.2 is a similar sectidn of an eight radial cylinder en ine;

Fig. 3 shows diagrammatically the respective position of the mouths offour cylinders providing a cylinder set as opening in the cooperatingexplosion chamber;

4 is a diagrammatic view similar to Fig. 3 in connection with a modifiedarrangement of cylinders;

ster-groups each similar to that illustrated in Fig. 7, said sectionbeing substantially on the line 8-8 of Fig. '7;

is a side view with parts in section of an engine similar to thatillustrated in Fig. 8 with a modified valve arrangement;

Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic perspective view of ,the transmission gearintermediate the shafts ea'ch cooperating with the piston or pistons ofa cylinder or of a cylinder row and a central driving shaft inconnection with engines of the class shown in Figs. 8 and 9; v

Fig. 11 is a diagrammatic side view with parts in section of an engineincluding two concentric driving shaftsand Fig. 12 is a diagrammaticperspective view of the transmission gear intermediate the crank shaftscooperating with the cylinder pistons and the central driving shafts.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1, the reference 8 is aflixed to a structurein which four cylinders 2, 3, 2, 2' are located, said cylinders beingarranged in two sets; one of said sets includes the 9 two cylinders 2, 3which extend from a casing 4 crank shafts i0 and ii supported asconvenwhich provides an explosion chamber 5. Pistons 5 and i reciprocatein the cylinders 2 and 3 and their respective connecting rods 8 and 9engage cases 32', 33'.

A drum 36 is provided intermediate the two casings d, d enclosing theexplosion chambers 5, 5'; in said drum a rotary distributor or valve I2is located which has at one end.a pinion i3 'meshing with a pinion itfast on a shaft l5 driven by the intermediate of pinion 35, 36 and shaft59, the means for actuation of shaft l9 by a main driving shaft of theengine being hereinafter described.

- The distributor i2 provides two aide. parts i2f which when saiddistributor is rotated are carried in timed succession'in front of themouths 5" of chambers 5 and 5 and lead respectively to an inlet duct itconnected with a conventional source of explosive fuel mixture and withan outlet l1. i Y

Means as ducts 31 and provide for a fluid circulation through theintermediate space I2 of said sleeve I2 for the purpose of cooling it.

Said distributor I2 is driven in rotation with a rotary speed which maybe one fourth or one half of the rotary speed of the crank shafts I0,II, III, II'; accordingly an explosion occurs at the same time in bothchambers 5, each two revolutions of said crank shafts or explosions willoccur'alternately in said chambers 5, 5' one at each revolution. M

Of course suitable conventional ignition means as a plug 46 provided topromote the ignition of the operative mixture in said chambers i, i.

The four crank shafts III, II, III. II' are connected with a singlecentral driving shaft or with two separate driving shafts by means of agearing as hereinafter described.

During the operation the usual operative cycle of four stroke explosionengines develops separately in each of the two chambers 5, 5' each ofwhich is common to a set of two cylinders. Consequently each explosionin each chamber causes a stroke in the same direction and through thesame extent of the two pistons of the co.- operating cylinder set; thepower development is thus shared on two separate sets of mechanicaltransmission gears.

The arrangement i such as the two crank shafts of each set as III and IIare revolving in opposed directions; each system comprising a piston, arod, a crank and a crank shaft as 6, 8, III thus develops on thestructure I comprising the cooperating cylinders, crank shaft bearingsand crank cases, as 2, 32 and 2', 32', stresses which are at any timeequal and directly opposed to stresses developed on said structure by asimilar system as 6', 8', III which operates in the opposed direction;accordingly in the whole star cylinder structure all the stressescompensate for each other and said star structure is balanced.

The engine shown invFig. 2 is similar to that described in respect ofFig. 1 but four cylinders cooperate with each explosion chamber and moreparticularly the cylinders 2, 3, 3a., 2a radiate from casing 4 providingan explosion chamber 5 and the cylinders 2', 3', i'a, 2'a radiate fromcasing 4' providing the chamber 5' said cylinders being diametricallyopposed two by two with re spect to a centre line intermediate thecasings 4, 4' and coextensive therewith.

A drum 34 having ports 5" is provided intermediate said casings 5, 5'and a rotary distributor I2 cooperates with it, the arrangement andactuation of the distributor I2 being made as described in connectionwith Figure 1.

In the illustrated construction the arrangement is such as the crankshafts III, II, Ila, ms and III, II, '11, W0. of each cylinder set whichare connected by rods 8, 9, 9a, 8a and 8', 9', 9'a, 8'a with the pistons6, I, la, 60 and 6', I, 1'0, 6'0 rotate in pairs in opposed directionsas shown by the arrows in Fig. 2.

In the arrangement of Fig. 2 the cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2a and 2', 3', 3'a,2a may be arranged with their axes in a single plane as evidenced by thediagram of Fig. 3 which shows in perspective fie respective "positionsof the mouths of the cy ders 2, 3, 3a, 2a in the casing 4; should it bedesired to reduce the angularspan of the explosionv chamber 5, 5 saidcylinders of each group may be staggered or lie in adjacent parallelplanes as shown in Fig. 4 in respect of cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2a. in theabove defined manner.

Fig. 5 illustrates another embodiment of an eight-cylinder stararrangement in which the cylinders of a set as 2, 3, 3a, 2a are notradially arranged and they do not lie on the extension of the axis'ofthe respectivecylinders 2', 3', 3a, 2a of the other set to provide pairstherewith.

In this construction .two explosion chambers as 5, 5a, and 5', 5'1: areprovided in respect of each cylinder set, each of said chamberscoopcrating with two cylinders.

As above described the explosion chambers provide a drum 34 for a rotarydistributor I2 driven by the shaft I5 as above described. The mixtureinlet duct I6 is located with advantage intermediate the pairs ofadjacent explosion chambers 6, 5a, 5', 5'a while the exhaust occursthrough the central outlet II of said distributor.

The arrangement-in this construction is such as the shafts III and II ofthe cylinder 2, 3 of the set cooperating with explosion chamber 5 rotateboth in the same direction, while the crank shafts Ila, Illa of the setof cylinders 3a, 2a cooperating with the explosion chamber Sa. revolvein the same direction this direction being opposed to that of crankshafts III and II; similar respective conditions exist in connectionwith the cylinders of the opposed sets. The whole star structure is thusbalanced.

Instead of having two opposed cylinder sets as in the above describedembodiments, a singleset of cylinders extending from one or moreexplosion chambers each common to two cylinders at least, may be d.

Such an arrange ent of the cylinders which may be referred as a fanarrangement, is illustrated in Fl 6; this embodiment includes fourcylinders 2, 3a, 2a radiating from a casing 4 which provides anexplosion chamber 5, while the other parts are similar to those of abovedescribed embodiments and are similarly referenced.

Figure 7 illustrates an embodiment in which each cylinder setcooperating with one and the same explosion chamber as 5, 5' includesthree cylinders 2, 3, 3a, 2', 3', 3'0. in which pistons 6, I, la, 6', I,To reciprocate, said pistons actuating the crank shafts I0, II, IIa,III, II, II'a, by means of connecting rods 8, 9, 9a, 8, 9', Sa.

The two cylinder sets are carried by a single structure I and areprovided with a rotary distributor I2 actuated by a shaft I5 in theabove described manner; the two cylinder sets are rigidly interconnectedsay by means of the rods I8, to entirely balance the actions developingin each star structure I.

In any case. the engine may include a number of star sets or of fan setsarranged at the side of each other, their adjacent cylinders providing anumber of aligned rows.

Figure 8 illustrates by way of example an engine which includes six starset each of the type shown by Fig. '7 and having a rotary distributorI2; all said distributors are actuated through the intermediate ofrespective shafts I5 by a shaft I9 (Fig. 7) which extends along theengine on a side thereof.

Fig. 9 illustrates an arrangement in which the distributor is arrangedlongitudinally of the engine and on the axis thereof. Further, in thisconstruction the engineincludes six star-cylinder structures eachincluding two sets of three cylinders of the kind shown in Fig. 7; a.drum 20 extends along the whole of the star sets and a distributorsleeve 2| is mounted to rotate within said drum, said sleeve beingdriven by one of the crank shafts, as Il through the intermediate of atrain of pinions 22. Said sleeve 2| is connected with the source ofexplosive mixture (not shown) and in register with ports 5" of theexcooling circulation therein.

As to the transmission of the power developed by the several cylindersets or rows, the pistons of all the cylinders aligned with each otherin I the several adjacent sets are connected with a single crank shaftand thus each row of cylinders operate like an engine having alignedcylinders.

Each of said crank shafts is provided with pinions 25, 25' (Figs. 8 and9) which impart the drive to one or more shafts which provide the enginedriving shaft or shafts. V

The transmission gear between each of said crank shafts and said maindriving shaft or shafts must be designed to comply with the requirementthat one half of said crank shafts must rotate in one direction and theother half must rotate in the-opposite one.

In the construcflon of Figs. 8 and 9 the engine includes a single mainor driving shaft having a pinion 21 fast thereon which meshes with thepinions 25 of a number of said crank shafts while the pinions 25' of theother crank shafts drive the pinion 21'by the intermediate of areversing pinions 28, 29 geared intermediate the pinions 25' and- 21.

Figure 10 shows diagrammatically and in perspective view the abovestated transmission gear, said figure displaying only'two crank shaftsIla and ll'c intended to rotate in opposed directions. The pinion 25fast on the shaft' ll'a is directly in mesh with the .central pinion '21fast with the shaft 26 while the pinion 25'. of the shaft l [a mesheswith another pinion 28 fast with engaged together by'a suitable gear tocomply with the obvious requirement that the rotation of said oppositelyrotating main 'shafts'must' be synchronous.

Figurell illustrates an engine having two con- 3 meshes with the pinion21 and the pinion 25' is in'mesh with pinion 21'; further pinions 30 and3| are provided which are fast with each other and'have a diameter equalto that of pinions 25,

" 25'; the pinion is in mesh with'the main pinion 21. while pinion 3| isin mesh with the pinion 25'.

25' are engaged angularly'with each other by the gearing 21, 30, 3| andthus the main shafts 26, 26' rotate in opposed directions withan equalnumber of revolutions per minute.

The described engine is adapted to develop very high powers insatisfactory conditions in respect of the construction, weight andbalance of the engine, while the'number of the parts devoted todistribution and ignition are reduced to I a minimum. Further thecooling of engine which may be secured by water jackets or aircirculation is made more simple and the power output may be taken off indifferent manners according to requirements.

What I claim as my invention" and desire to secure by United StatesLetters Patent is:

1. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising a casing providing anumber of adjacent chambers at each of opposite sides thereof, means fortimely connecting each of said chambers with an operative fluid inletand outlet, means for igniting said fluid'in each of said chambers. setsof cylinders radiating from said casing, each of said sets including foreach. of said chambers a number of cylinders adjacent to each other andopening at one of their ends in the same end of the respective chamber,crank-oases each at the casing-spaced ends of one of said cylinders,crank-shafts each in one of said crank-cases, pistons each reciprocatingin one of said cylinders, rods connecting the pistons of said cylin-'ders with said crank-shafts of the respective crank-cases, at, least apower output shaft, and means connecting said power output shaft withsaid crank-shafts.

2. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising an elongated casingproviding a number of adjacent chambers located at each of oppositesides thereof and in a succession extending in the longitudinaldirection of said casing, means for timely connecting each of saidchambers with i an operative fluid inlet and outlet, means for lgnitingsaid fluid in each of said chambers, sets of cylinders radiating fromsaid casing, each of centric main shafts 26, 26' which are required torotate in opposed directions and which have pinions 21, 21' fast thereonrespectively the pinion 21 being engaged by the pinions 25 which rotateall in onegiven direction whilst the pinion 21' is engaged by all thepinions 25' which ro-' tate in the opposed direction; said .shafts 26,25' are interconnected by a gear adapted to secure their synchronousrotation as hereinafter de scribed in connection with Fig. l2.

In Fig. 12, two pinions'25 and 25' fast on reversely rotating crankshafts l6'a, Ida and two pinions 21, 21' fast with main driving shafts25, 26' respectively, are illustrated. The pinion .25

crank-shafts of the respective crank-cases, at j said sets including foreach of said chambers a number. of cylinders adjacent to each, other andopening at one of their ends in the same end of the respective chamber,said cylinders of said sets providing a number of parallel rowsextending along said casing, crank-cases eachlat the casing-spaced endsof said cylinders of one'of said rows, crank-shafts each inone ofsaidcrank-cases, pistons each reciprocating in one of said cylinders.rods connecting the pistons of said cylinders of each of said rows withsaid least a power output shaft and means connecting said poweroutputshaft with said crank-shafts.

3. A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising an elongated casingproviding a number of adjacent chambers located at each of oppositesides thereof and in a successionextending in the longitudinal directionof said casing, means for timely connecting each of said chambers withan operative fluid inlet and outlet, means for ignifing said fluid ineachof said chambers, sets of cylinders radiating fromsaid casing, eachof By the described arrangement the pinions 25,

4 &284,848

an even niimber of cylinders adjacent to each other with their axessubstantially co-planar and opening at one of their ends in the same.

end of the respective chamber, said cylinders of said sets providing anumber of parallel rows extending along said easing, crank-cases each atthe casing-spaced end: of said cylinders of one of said rowscrank-shaite each in one of shafts.

ALESSANDRO TEBAIDI.

